


The Dog Days Of Candy

by starcrossedWanderer



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Five Stages of Grief, I also love angst, It's a little gay., Not Canon Compliant - The Homestuck Epilogues, The Homestuck Epilogues, The Homestuck Epilogues: Candy, a non zero amount of gay, cw heterosexuals, does it count as heterosexuality if one is bi and the other is gay?, listen.... I just love jade.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23640115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starcrossedWanderer/pseuds/starcrossedWanderer
Summary: Dave has ascended to his ultimate self, but what about Jade?
Relationships: Jade Harley/Dave Strider
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	The Dog Days Of Candy

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you process Grief from losing someone by projecting onto characters that you love.

“Dave, I managed to get two of these shitty Liberties setup. how’s that ‘ancient bullshit’ looking like?”

Jade called into her mic, and took a look at the Lady Liberty covered the battlefield. Fighting for the resistance had led Jade and her husband to the deep jungles. Orders from above, or so they called it, though to be honest, Jade was just glad to be busy. Working a mission with her husband was always nice, though his attention had been somewhat distracted lately. She stared at her walkie talkie. He hadn’t responded. 

“Okay very funny Dave, Seriously, how are you doing?” Her radio returned to static, “Dave?” 

She blinked. This wasn’t like him. Usually, he had some witty retort or a long-winded rap, or something else funny. But silence? Nothing?” 

“Dave are you okay? Are you hurt?” She stared back at the place she saw him enter not just 15 minutes ago. Should she go in? Maybe one more shot to give it a go. 

“Okay Dave, I’m gonna count to 3 and if you don’t respond I’m coming in after you.” she took a deep breath. He had been different lately. Less passionate. Less himself. Less...Dave. As if he was just a splinter of what she had once loved. 

“One.” But… She didn’t want to end up like John and Roxy. She didn’t want a divorce. If she worked hard than that wouldn’t happen right? Dave was everything she had ever wanted. Everything she needed. From the times that they had played games together, destroying each other’s music, remixing it and seeing how much better they could make it, gathering frogs together, and the meteor. Davesprite… the brief time that she had was incredible. They always had good chemistry together. 

“Two.” He wouldn’t leave her, would he? He wouldn’t leave her like everyone else did right? That wasn’t like him. Dave was always there in the end. One way or another. Knowing just the right thing to say, when she was feeling down. The way his rambles or monologues calmed her down when she just needed another thing to focus on to distract her from the bad thoughts. Her hands were shaking. She stared at her radio in silence. 

“Did I do something wrong?” 

Static was her only reply. 

“Three.” She dropped the radio and descended down to the entrance she saw Dave enter earlier. Her footsteps echoed through the… Oval Office?

Jade took a look around. She knew this planet held some mysteries from Dirk’s time, but she had never expected an overgrown oval office in the middle of a jungle. It felt strange. Placed on purpose. 

“Dave, are you in here? Answer me please.” 

It’s not like she hadn’t noticed. Their relationship had been falling apart slowly. More and more she would have to prompt him to say something or they would end up eating dinner in silence. They didn’t have to eat, but Jade had always found something relaxing about cooking. Something… Therapeutic. Pulling Taffy to make candy, Mixing a bowl of ingredients To make a pie. Searing Meat to make steak. And even more, she enjoyed doing it with Dave. He almost always had a funny thing to say about the ingredients. Something witty to drop about the dish. Sometimes he’d just beatbox while stirring soup and she’d try to keep up and make lyrics but would end up making a fool of herself. 

“Are you mad at me?”   
She looks over and sees a transportalizer that looks like it’s been wiped off. She places a hand on it. Still warm. It’s recently been used. She takes a step and poofs away, finding herself in a long-forgotten crypt. Bright gold adorned the walls around her and she could see a Hope outfit in a glass case, much like the one Jake used to wear. 

She kept getting lost in her thoughts, memories. As if this was the last time she was ever going to see him. No. It couldn’t be. She was sure of it. This couldn’t be-

“The last time you’ll ever see Dave Strider” 

Jade froze. She recognized that voice. But, It couldn’t be. He was dead. He couldn’t be. 

“Dirk?” 

Jade turned and came face to face with the shining hologram of... Barack Obama?

Jade blinked, temporarily stunned by the Former president before her. Dave never shut up about Obama after all, “what- who are you?”

“Hello, Mrs.Strider. Or would you prefer to be called Ms.Harley now?”

Jade shook, tears at the corner of her eyes, “What?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

She did, “What, I don’t understand?” 

“I have to admit, I didn’t expect this to be essential, relevant or true, but I suppose this is in fact happening.” 

“Where is he?” Jade growled out.

“Easy now Ms.Harley. No use biting at what isn’t there.”

Jade leaped at the hologram and crashed into the glass case. She rubbed her head, shaking glass out of her hair. “What did you do to him?”

“I did nothing other than hold up a mirror,” the voice said with a wink. 

“LIAR! Give him back!”

“Easy now Harley, you can see for yourself, just-” Jade turned to where he was pointing and she ran towards the corpse, shaking. 

No. No. No! No! NO!!! With every step, she could see his face and every day where she just saw less and less of that spark. Every day failed where she should have asked what was on his mind. She searched her brain trying to find something, anything that could have changed the outcome that she dreaded to see before her. Anything that could make this harsh reality less cruel. 

Her blood ran cold at the sight she saw before her, “Dave? I can see you. Haha, Funny joke that you’re playing here. Did you get John in on this one? The Obama hologram is rather impressive.”

Dave’s corpse didn’t move. There was no rise and fall with every breath. Jade knew this, he smelled different, and she didn’t want to believe it, “I’m gonna have to get you back real good from this one Dave! Hehe.” 

She walked up and kneeled down to his corpse. 

“He’s dead Jade” 

“He’ll come back. How could dying in a crypt be heroic or just?”

“He won’t.”

She knew this, Something deep inside of her knew this, “Yes he will. He’ll come around, and when he does I’ll tell him how much I love him and everything will be okay.” 

“He doesn’t love you.” 

Her breath hitched, she could feel her heart shattering to pieces, “Yes he does.” 

“He told me he was gay, Jade. He didn’t tell you. What does that say about you?” 

Her body shook with rage, “Was I not a good wife? Did I not love him with everything I could?” 

There was no response. 

Jade looked down at Dave’s naked eyes and brushed a lock of hair out of his face. His shades weren’t here. He never went anywhere without them. He never took them off, not even when sleeping. Jade took a glance around and saw nothing. No place where they could be hiding. She stared back at the now broken glass case that had a distorted hologram projected onto it. She growled, “What. Happened.”

Obama smirked, “What happens to all God tiers that find their bodies no longer capable to hold the entirety that they become. He ascended-”

Jade cradled the body of her dead husband, “DON’T BULLSHIT ME”

Obama frowned, “It’s the truth, Jade. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.”

She looked down at the lifeless face of her husband. Her husband that just 20 minutes ago she had kissed. The husband that she had just held in her arms, his beating heart pulsing with life. A tear fell from her eyes and dropped onto his cheek. She pushed her forehead against his and cried.

“I’m sorry Dave. I’m sorry I couldn’t see it. I only wish I could have known that would be our last hug.” She looked back at the hologram, Her tear-stained face staring back at him, “Is he going to be okay?” 

Obama tilted his head and smirked, “Jade, He’s going to be incredible.”

Jade nodded and looked back at her husband she dispelled the Obama hologram she had made when she entered. She pulled Dave’s hand to her face and stared at his hand that was decorated by a single golden ring engraved with intricate gears. 

She summoned what little strength she had left and she pulled the ring off his finger.

She stood up and looked at the ring in her hand. She had made it herself. 

Then with a deep breath, she closed her hand around it and teleported away. 


End file.
